Disha Dilip Batch 2020

The thesis began from an inquiry into how to create spaces in a city where citizens can exercise their right to freedom of expression. One direction that this took, was to understand how protest sites work in cities. Another interesting direction that this took, was to look at how stand-up comedy, and eventually, comedy as an idea, could help achieve this. These two approaches culminated into a program where stand-up comedy and similar performative art forms could co-exist with a space for protest, within a building that is a media house for alternative journalism.

The design process involved looking at how frameworks of comedy can gain an architectural translation. Being located in a prominent central location in the city, it also involved an attempt to sensitively but boldly borrow from the context and create symbiotic relationships with the immediate neighbouring institutions. The final design produces a vibrant public ground plane that is separated into an external and internal plaza by a vertical volume of stone, serving as a datum. The rest of the building anchors itself to this datum and together, creates an ecosystem of social awareness and commentary.